Back home

I was the first one to awaken this morning around 7am and decided rather than get up and get ready, I would read some more on the book I'm going through: "The Red Sea Rules". I read on this until Chan finally woke up and began typing his blog from the previous day. We woke Hickey up in the most effective method that I have found. We squirted him in the face with a squirt gun until he moved! I will have video clips of this event posted on Myspace a little later this week. We kind of watched TV and just hung out in the room until we realized that it was drawing near to the time we would have to check out. We rushed to shower (separately of course) and get things packed back up to check out at the appropriate time. We loaded up the Xterra and decided to drive for an hour and then stop an eat to watch part of the UT basketball game. We drove until noon and then made the decision to try and find the game on the radio and keep driving so we would make it back to Knoxville before the 5:00 traffic rush. We stopped off somewhere in South Carolina at Marice's BBQ for lunch after we bought gas for the remainder of the trip. We chose this restaurant based on a billboard we saw on the interstate. It read: "Maurice's BBQ. Our BBQ will make you happy!" That seemed like a bold statement to make concerning our local love of Buddy's, but we decided to try it before we judged. It was delicious and since we were starving by this point, I guess you could say that we were happy. So it wasn't false advertising, in our case at least. We continued on the road and arrived in Knoxville around 4:45pm to find no real traffic problems due to the holiday weekend. We stopped at Chan's house to pick up my car and loaded up Hickey's junk and my junk and we headed to Hickey's house as the last destination on our journey. We decided to take Northshore Dr. since it was such good weather for driving. We arrived at the dreaded roundabout they have recently installed at the intersection of Northshore and Concord to be pleasantly surprised that they have added a yield bypass for those turning right onto Concord Rd. This is amazingly good so people who just want to turn right don't have to traverse through the roundabout and possibly get hit by those who can't figure out how to navigate such an uncommon road obstacle. I dropped Hickey off at his house where his dad was mowing the lawn and his mom was brushing Sky, their collie.

I arrived back at my parents house just in time to hop in the car and go to the Tuckers for dinner. We had BBQ chicken, beans, and corn for the main course, and then Jon brought home an Easter basket from someone at his dad's work for dessert. Jon and I watched parts of the Vanderbilt basketball game and then ended up watching John Adams, a new mini-series on HBO. It was chalked full of stars and was very engaging from the start. We watched the first entire episode and then it was time to return to Le Chateau de Taylor for the duration of the evening. I decided to pass on Applebee's seeing as how I was very tired from the day's travels and I had a full day planned for tomorrow so I needed to get some much needed rest.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 37:23-24

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the LORD upholds him."

Charleston, my kind of place.

I woke up around 7:30 to the sounds of the ocean waves crashing into the sand and the sea-gulls singing (if you can call it that) to greet the new day. I was still feeling tired, but that was to be expected after going to bed around 3am. I grabbed a quick shower and then moved a chair out to the balcony to do some reading and start the day off on the right foot. Chan and I decided that we should wake up Hickey by 8:30 so we could begin the travels for the day by 10. I gave the first attempt at stirring him by taking two of the hotel pillows and repeatedly hitting him with them for about 10 seconds solid. Surprisingly, this did nothing to move him towards consciousness. Chan then shook him and he finally came out of his coma. Chan and I left Hickey to begin his process of getting ready for the day and went to Walmart in search of IBC Root Beer bottles, a squirt gun, and a thumb drive. Let me explain: The bottles for placing a letter I have written inside to put out to sea, the squirt gun to wake Hickey up the next morning, and the thumb drive to transfer Chan's blog to my laptop so we could post it online as his laptop was not allowing internet access for some reason. We found only the thumb drive at Walmart (which is the least well stocked store I have been to) so we gathered the remainder of our items at the local Piggly Wiggly. We returned to the hotel and wasted a little more time, posting blogs, and packing bags before hopping in the car to drive to downtown Charleston.

We first stopped off at the Goodwill store in an attempt to find some obscure yet priceless t-shirt that would help us remember this fateful trip. We navigated our way fairly easily, only relying on the GPS to direct us when we weren't sure if we were heading in the wrong direction (so all the time). We parked and walked for just a bit until we came to our destination for lunch: A.W. Shucks. I had the Crab Cake and Stuffed Shrimp combo. It is a 5 oz. Crab Cake with 2 jumbo shrimp stuffed with crab meat and wrapped in bacon. It also came with a baked potato and hush puppies (which I found out is Hickey's favorite food group). After we ate and purchased shirts to commemorate our meal, we walked through the straw market to see what hidden treasures might be found. I purchase a new ring and Hickey and Chan bought various gifts for several people back in Knoxville. We then dropped Hickey off, on a street corner, so he could find the Quicksilver shop to buy some things for Clay and himself. Hickey was our driver while we were driving anywhere except to and from Knoxville, so when he got out of the driver's seat guess who stepped in to keep the party moving. That's right, me! This was an unexpected occurrence as I do not like to drive anything larger than my Toyota Camry. I was a good sport though and did quite well, hitting no buildings and running over no pedestrians. After that we drove around for a while and visited yet another thrift store to try and find the perfect shirts to capture the memories of our trip. Once again we struck out. We drove around for a short while before deciding to return to the hotel to chill for a bit and Chan wanted to try and catch up on some sleep (as he went to bed around 3am and got up around 6 am). He was extremely successful as you can see by the picture shown here.

While Chan was slipping deeper into his coma of recovery, Hickey and I walked down to a surf shop on the street corner near our hotel. We found what we thought we would; lots of cool stuff at really high prices. We walked down to the end of the pier and sat, talking for about an hour about life, love, and purpose. It was really good to get the last of this stuff off my chest and it was even better to share it with such a close friend. Hickey and I got tired of just sitting so we began walking down the beach towards the beach house where the college department at CBCB stays during the summer. We soon became inspired to go further at a faster pace and began running on the hard part of the beach to avoid slipping in the sand. We ran for about a mile and then slowed to a walking pace. We began collecting seashells for no reason. It just seemed like there would be some purpose if we kept at it. We walked for another mile or so and soon found ourselves at the end of the beach. We took some wonderful pictures that I will be able to show you sometime or if you want to you can log on to Facebook or Myspace and view the album there after I get back to GA. We also stumbled upon a seashell that was broken into many smaller pieces, but every piece was still right there in the same spot and in the correct formation. I thought about this for a while, and then it hit me. Even though things or people in life are broken, it doesn't mean that all the pieces aren't there to be put back together and that others can help you see the pieces you miss. This was very comforting to me and I knew that this was the first lesson that God was teaching me on this trip. We slowly made our way back towards the hotel and arrived back at our room approximately 4 hours after we left. We all piled into the Xterra and were driving around in search of a place to eat dinner. We pulled into Melvin's BBQ restaurant only to find that closed in 15 minutes. We continued driving until we finally found ourselves at Charleston Crab House. While there I realized that Hickey really doesn't like seafood (Amy you're not alone!) as he ordered a chicken sandwich. I ordered the Coconut Shrimp with French fries. They were delicious, but I was unable to finish them as I ate 3 hush puppies and drank 4 glasses of sweet tea before I really got into my meal. The staff at the restaurant was extremely nice and were very adamant about getting everything exactly right. We opted not to get shirts from there due to the fact that it would mean our entire selection of t-shirts in our wardrobe would consist of 60% shirt from restaurants. (not that that's bad or that that is an accurate percentage, but you get the general idea). We decided to hold off on ice cream until tomrrow seeing as how we couldn't eat anything else. We then went for a short walk on the beach to finish putting some things to rest for now by placing a letter in a bottle and then throwing it out to sea. This was a good release for me and a way to allow God to take this burden from me and to place it in His hands for His time. We relaxed for the remainder of the evening at the hotel watching NCAA basketball games and drifting in and out of sleep. The last sounds I heard were the gentle breeze and the rhythmic crashing of waves on the beach just a few yards away.

Meditation for the day: Jeremiah 24:4-7

"Then the word of the LORD came to me: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart."

I can see the ocean!

The day started out pretty normal as my alarm clock screamed in an attempt to wake me up. It was unsuccessful at first, but finally on the third try I got up. I scrambled around getting ready for work and getting last minute things together for the trip. Work was kind of a waste as I only got a few things done before my meeting with the owners of Sparkfly. I did, however, get a chance to meet with Dave and sift through the pile of requests to avoid any additional build-up of work while I am gone to Charleston. We met with the owners of Sparkfly to discuss some more in-depth involvement we could do to promote each other and grow our businesses. My involvement in the meeting was only supposed to be introductions and a quick over view of their company and our history with them. Unfortunately it was much more than that. I ended up staying for the entire meeting which lasted about an hour and a half! This put me that much behind schedule in my departure for Knoxville to meet up with Hickey and Chan to begin our journey. I rapidly ran back to the apartment, changed, and then hit the road in the downpour that had begun when I left work. I was making pretty good time and thought I might be able to make up some of my deficit and we wouldn’t have to leave so late. I thought that until I got just outside Chattanooga. That is when the traffic on the interstate stopped. Not crawled slowly or slowed down. It just stopped dead. I found out after going about 2 miles in 45 minutes, that they had shut down the entire north bound side of I-75. They opened it up just before I was forced to exit and try to navigate my way to Knoxville by way of back roads. I followed the road side assistance vehicles until they moved aside and let everyone get back to a normal speed instead of following them like a pace car at 20 mph. I finally made it into Knoxville at 5:00pm which means that it took about 4 hours to get up here instead of the usual 2 hours 45 minutes.

Once I arrived in Knoxville I drove to Chan’s house where we unloaded his car from a trip to MaKay’s and we loaded my stuff. We hit the road, but not to Charleston. We first made a stop off at the Great American Steak & Buffet (or GASB to the veterans of this establishment). We ate dinner with one of Hickey’s friends and then we hit the road for real this time. The weather was good to begin with, but we soon found ourselves being blown around on the interstate and hammered with lots of rain. (perhaps I could bottle some of this and give it to my fellow Georgians to do my part in bringing an end to the drought). We spent the first three hours of our trip listening to “Under Pressure” by Queen featuring David Bowie. Chan and I also spent some time talking about life, love, and loss. (Hickey was passed out asleep for this so he missed out). The rest of the tip was hit or miss on the rain. It was either nothing at all or a mini typhoon surrounding our vehicle. We rolled in to Charleston at 12:51am and it was very, very windy. It also was raining and there were no places within a mile of the hotel to park so we ran and only got mildly soaked. We got into our room and Hickey discovered a strange beeping noise that instantly drove him insane. He wouldn’t let it rest so he went down to the front desk to have them check it out. They responded rather quickly (no doubt due to Hickey’s distressed expression on his face) and sent security up to investigate. They discovered it was nothing more than the alarm clock in the room next door and promptly deactivated it. Problem solved, case closed. Hickey and I were very impressed with Chan's hair and uncanny resemblance to Noah from the Old Testament. (see picture for proof). We decided to crash for the night so we could be refreshed for the morning.

I can almost smell the ocean...

Today time passed quite slow as I suspected it would. All I could think about was what I had to pack and what I thought I would forget to pack. I spent the first part of the day going through some tutorials online to expand my knowledge of Photoshop and how to make files from there work better in InDesign. I also got 2 more requests for donations and sponsorships to add to my large stack of things to get approval/denial from Dave. I went back to my apartment during lunch and began the packing process. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but at least there was some visible progress made. I finished out the day at work talking breifly with Dave and Chris about what flyers I will be producing and what flyers I will be designing layouts only. Basically it boils down to what is a more valuable use of my time: flyer production or customer database management. Obviously the second is the more important seeing as how we can have the best sales pieces in the world, but if they aren't getting to the right people they are a waste of time and money. So....the 7 pages of the back-to-school flyer I have worked on for the past 2 days are no longer my responsibility. That is both slightly frustrating and slightly relieving as I wasn't really looking forward to tracking down 16 pages worth of high-res images. I wrapped up a few loose ends that I could do before tomorrow.

I went home and began furiously packing. I realized that I was actually packing for 2 trips. First for Charleston, and then for my 2 day layover in Knoxville for Easter weekend. This complicated things a little as I decided that packing for both trips at the same time was a faster way to work. I was wrong. I only succeeded in confusing myself and delaying any real progress. Once I got things sorted out, I loaded up my bags with clothes and supplies for my trips. I then prepped my laptop to take with me, freeing up disk space to hold music and photos we take on our adventure. I am almost like a young child on Christmas morning, waiting in anticipation of the onset of the next day where new adventures await me and my friends. I hope that we find an answer to our email seeking an interview with the owners of Camp Tunawanda, the film location for the movie Happy Campers. I suppose I ought to get more sleep tonight so I will be more alert to drive to Knoxville in the severe storms predicted to follow me on the road tomorrow. I will try and keep posting each day on my trip to keep you up to date on our adventures. For now I'll leave you with the meditation for the day.

Meditation for the day: I am hoping to hear God's voice speaking to my heart on this trip. I have had a hard time lately trying to decide where to start picking up the pieces. Pray that I meet with the Almighty staring at the vast sky littered with stars at night on the beach were I hope to find solitude and comfort.

1 Kings 19:11-13

"The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by."
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

The luck of the Irish

I started off today actually remembering to wear my green dress shirt to work today. I usually forget things like that, but I figured being the new guy in the office if I neglected to participate in this festive day, I would surely be red all over from the ferocious pinching I would receive. The office was relatively quiet today as Dave, Vickie, and Stacy were all off work for various reasons. I got about 4 pages done on the back to school flyer which was 2 more than I planned this week. I have decided to not focus solely on that flyer every day, but instead spread it out so I can still get other things done. Its not like there is a huge rush for this to be finished as it won't be printed until June. The day passed relatively quickly, which is good. I figured it might drag on as I am not really focused on work, but instead longing to be walking on the beach at night in Charleston with two of my best friends.

After work ended I went back to the apartment to do some things (aka laundry) to begin getting ready for Charleston. I was able to do more than I thought before I had to leave to go over to Stacy's. I drove to Stacy's and met her and her two friends, Kristy and Stephanie, who were visiting from Miami. I followed them to Marietta Square, which is similar to Knoxville's Market Square, but it was much bigger. We were expecting a large crowd to be present to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but it really wasn't very busy. We were able to easily find parking and then walked to Hemingway's Bar and Grille where we met Tausha (from the School Box) and another Stephanie (one of Stacy's friends from Smyrna, GA). It was an interesting blend of food available on the menu. They had traditional bar food, but also had several tropical themed dishes. This was no doubt in honor of where Ernest Hemingway lived for a portion of his life. I ordered the jerk wings. They were very peppery, but not too greasy and had quite a bit of meat on the bones. We got to listen to a variety of music while there was Monday night trivia going on in the background. We heard everything from Outkasts' "I'm Sorry Miss Jackson" to Kiss' "Detroit Rock City". I was hoping to sample some green beer jst to say I had the experience, but they ran out before we got around to ordering it. Oh well, perhaps it was for the best (I can't imagine it would taste good). It got to be close to 11:30 and Tausha and I decided that since we had to be at work at 8am the next morning we were calling it a night. I followed Tausha back to I-75 and then found my own way home. It isn't really as bad to drive around the metro Atlanta area as people think. I got home and did a few things then fell victim to sleep deprivation and called it a night.

Mediation for the day (In preparation for being on the beach at night looking at the vast sky filled with stars and realizing how small we really are): 1 Chronicles 4:40 "They found rich, good pasture, and the land was spacious, peaceful and quiet."

Weddings, Snick, and Baseball

This weekend in Knoxville found my time occupied at every stage of each day. It was refreshing to always be doing something, but it was exhausting as well. On Saturday morning I was joined by my parents and Amy for a breakfast of heart-shaped waffles, Belgian waffles, and crisp bacon. It was very filling (I in fact skipped lunch do the unbelievable amount of food I consumed at one sitting). I filled up on gas, which was about 11 cents per gallon cheaper here than in Kennesaw, and prepped everything to film the wedding. I changed clothes, picked up Hickey, and we were off!

We filmed the wedding at New Hope Baptist Church in Maryville. The church was kind of small, but it was very nice inside. It reminded me of Cokesbury UMC in Knoxville both in its fan shaped layout and in its dim lighting that people seem to think sets the mood for weddings. The ceremony went smoothly once it got rolling, but I almost jumped from the balcony to attack a person sitting in the front row when they saw fit to pick up one of my cameras that was filming on the front pew and turn it off and set it to the side. I can't believe that someone would do that without trying to ask someone first, "is someone using this?"! After my mild stroke from that ruined shooting angle, the rest of the ceremony went great. Hickey and I both got some fabulous shots that will really make the DVD look outstanding. We packed up our equipment and then relocated to the Top of the Plaza at Preservation in downtown Maryville. While driving there, Hickey and I determined that we would definitely be returning to that area to do some filming at a later date. We filmed the reception in what could best be described as a miniature version of Club LaConte in Knoxville. It was pretty good as receptions go, but the DJ was a bit over the top and seemed more focused on taking his own pictures and video footage than running the music played for dancing. After we filmed all we could, basically after the bride and groom left, we returned to Knoxville to begin the rest of the evening. We (Hickey and I) changed clothes and then went to Walmart to buy some travel supplies for our Charleston trip next week. We ended up driving around for a bit and finally decided on eating dinner at Mr. Gatti's near Papermill Rd. We were two of the 5 people in the restaurant at the time of our arrival. We were the last two people there, aside from employees, but it takes time to consume 15-16 small slices of pizza, pasta, and cheese sticks. After stuffing ourselves (no self control with food!) we returned to HIckey's parents house and watched the first 4 episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, a popular "scary stories" television show that originally aired in the mid-late 90's on Snick (Saturday Night Nickelodeon). It took us back to a simpler time where TV shows were well written, poorly acted, and created memories for a life time. It was around 12:30am and I decided I ought to try and get some sleep before beginning another packed day!

Sunday morning I went to the 9:30am service at CBCB and was greeted by a grand hug from Mr. Wendell. It was nice to see all of my friends again. I went to Sunday School at Walker's house where apparently I missed the memo about wearing the W.C. Vinson Ministries T-shirt. Matt, Walker, and Big Bill were all wearing their shirt and Chan got a picture of all of us to commemorate this unusual moment. You should be able to see it on his blog (www.chandlervinson.blogspot.com) I left there and met Hickey back at my parent's house where we changed clothes and hopped in his truck for our next adventure. We grabbed a quick bite at the Pita Pit on the Cumberland Ave. before going to purchase our tickets for the U.T. vs. LSU baseball game. They were playing a double header and the first game began at noon. We came in about the middle of the first game and claimed our seats. We were soon joined by Clay and his girlfriend Amber to enjoy the second game. UT won the first game by a score of 7-3.

We only hung around the second game until the 5th inning after a Vol hit a home run with a runner on base to take the lead for the Vols 3-2. We are assuming that UT won the second game as well seeing as how the pitcher that LSU brought in to finished the game is the one who gave up the home run on his second batter he pitched to. We ran over the Tuckers home to say hi and pick up some stuff Amy had for both Hickey and I. While we were there, we hopped the fence next door and visited Charlie and Stephanie. It was good to see more friends since I'm usually busy the entire time I'm in town and don't get to see everyone I would like to. Hickey dropped me off at my parents house and I said my goodbyes then hit the road back to Kennesaw. I arrived around 9:00pm and began unpacking and working on laundry (so I could start re-packing for Charleston tomorrow). I am almost asleep on my feet now, so I must call it an evening and get some sleep. Don't forget to wear green tomorrow or risk getting pinched!